Rare specialty of the house

The remnants of the infamous Bartman baseball have found their way onto the menu at Harry Caray's restaurant thanks to a special sauce

February 16, 2005|By David Haugh, Tribune staff reporter.

If Harry Caray's restaurant needs any recipe tips for the sauce flavored with the Budweiser-soaked, blown-up remnants of the Steve Bartman baseball, culinary expert Bruce Craig offered some food for thought.

"As a food professional, I suppose they should throw some cork in there, too, in honor of Sammy [Sosa]," kidded Craig, the president of the Culinary Historians of Chicago. "And maybe a dash of andro [androstenedione] would be a good baseball mix."

If that concoction sounds less than appetizing to Cubs fans who will be sampling the sauce next week, Craig warned it could be worse.

"If they were doing this around the [last] turn of the century, the hides of the baseballs would have been tanned in urine," Craig said, chuckling. "But they stopped doing that in the late 1800s."

A White Sox fan might say, around the same time the Cubs last won a World Series (1908).

The Cubs came close to returning to the World Series for the first time since 1945 until the foul ball that deflected off Bartman during Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series changed the course of local history too.

Some contend the Bartman ball has been overdone in local publicity campaigns and news coverage, but that will not stop it from simmering in a sauce pan next week at Harry Caray's. Grant DePorter, managing partner of Harry Caray's restaurant group, will stir it up again with plans to use the infamous ball to raise money for charity.

A year after blowing up the ball in an event that raised money for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, the restaurant will soak the ball's remains in a vat of Budweiser and add other ingredients to make a "curse-ending sauce."

"At the urging of faithful Cubs fans, Harry Caray's will try once again to use the power of the ball to generate positive energy for the Cubs," DePorter said.

Cubs fans with a strong stomach (after 59 seasons without a World Series, isn't that redundant?) can order the special sauce over pasta from Feb. 21 to 24 at Harry Caray's locations downtown and in Rosemont. The usual whine is recommended: Wait till next year.

"If there's any gunpowder or smoke residue among the remnants, then it could have a smoky flavor to it," guessed chef Michael Kornick, owner of MK and a James Beard Foundation nominee for Best Midwestern Chef in 2004.

"But I suspect it will taste like whatever they want it to taste like," Kornick said. "A small percentage of anything is undetectable. Maybe [general manager] Jim Hendry should put some magic ingredients in there. He obviously has some."

Cubs fans probably would not quibble as long as relief pitcher LaTroy Hawkins keeps away from the kitchen.